Onwards and upwards

Another year of successes and accomplishments has ended, and we start a new decade at JEM with great expectations. We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary and published our 100th issue, and we began a series of special themed issues including one devoted to water (issue 1, 2010) and one devoted to articles by Emerging investigators (issue 11, 2010). These themed issues have been very popular and, speaking for myself, a valued resource for my own research. This format of 1–2 themed issues per year will continue into the future.

The quality of JEM is reflected in our upward momentum regarding the ISI impact factor – we went from 1.9 in 2009 to 2.2 in 2010, a great achievement that indicates we are making good editorial decisions. One change we instituted this past year was a requirement for authors to provide a non-technical description of the impact of their research – what is the importance of their findings, how their result makes a difference – and this is now published with the article as an Environmental Impact statement. Authors in the environmental sciences need to be able to articulate this, and I believe this has been a positive addition to our publication.

JEM is also reaching out to scientists through professional meetings – we co-sponsored the Gordon Research Conference on Environmental Sciences: Water in 2008 and again in 2010. We attended the Dioxin 2010 meetings, and the EU Water Framework Directive meetings. We co-sponsor the SETAC/Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Environmental Science Award, presented annually to a promising mid-career scientist at the North American SETAC meetings.

JEM receives submissions from nearly every country in the world; in 2009, 23% of total JEM content came from government institutes and of these institutions the greatest contribution came from the US EPA (5.2%).

Publication times have remained fairly steady in 2010 with most papers being published within 75 to 100 days from receipt

There are also changes planned for the Editorial Board. This is my final year as Chair of the Board, and I am sad to leave it but very proud of the accomplishments that we have made in the six years I have been associated with JEM. These are not my accomplishments, but those of many, including the other Board members and their expert guidance, and especially the highly professional staff of JEM at the Royal Society of Chemistry. The Board has been expanded both in terms of expertise but also geographically – we offer a warm welcome to our newest addition, Dr Liang-Hong Guo from China. I leave the Board knowing with confidence that JEM is on an upward trajectory in terms of quality, readership, technological advances, and impact.

Professor Deborah Swackhammer

Editorial Board Chair, JEM

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